The world’s billionaires have an outsized impact on the world’s economy, politics, and philanthropy. According to Forbes, there will be 2,668 billionaires worldwide in the year 2022.
The wealthiest members of this group are part of an even smaller and more powerful elite. Many of these billionaires are the first investors in what became massively successful IT enterprises. To avoid paying taxes on unrealized capital gains, they can take out a loan against their wealth instead of selling stock.
Some of the billionaires on this list may not have paid any federal income tax in recent years because they took advantage of the extensive tax breaks available to them.
The wealth of the wealthy can rise and fall with the stock market since so much of it is invested in publicly traded companies. Elon Musk, creator and CEO of Tesla Inc. (TSLA), and the world’s richest person had his net worth improve in 2021 due to the rise in Tesla’s share price.
Who Holds the Title of the Richest Man in the World?
Here are the top 10 wealthiest people in the world:
1. Elon Musk ($262.9 billion)
Elon Musk’s success with Tesla has made him the wealthiest person on the globe. Musk, meanwhile, has been preoccupied with a number of other notable enterprises for quite some time and has his roots in the so-called “PayPal Mafia.” In this group, PayPal’s alumni included serial entrepreneurs and angel investors who have found great success in their own right.
Musk owns a quarter of Tesla and several other game-changing companies, such as SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. In light of his many achievements, he is currently negotiating to acquire Twitter in an all-cash deal valued at around $44 billion.
He is the Co-founder and CEO of Tesla and resides in Texas. He is currently 5o years old.
Also Read: Elon Musk Net Worth 2022: Is Elon Musk Still the Owner of Paypal?
2. Bernard Arnault and Family ($166 billion)
Bernard Arnault became wealthy in the luxury goods market through his ownership of iconic labels like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior. Like many on this list, he rose to the top by catering to affluent customers and keeping a sizable interest (47%) in his company, LVMH.
Together with his brothers and sisters, Arnault oversees a luxury fashion empire that includes more than seventy different labels. The addition of Tiffany & Co. in January 2021 for an estimated $15.8 billion was the greatest acquisition in the history of premium fashion. Arnault’s fortune is not solely attributable to the fashion industry; he also owns a number of high-end hotels and a cruise company.
3. Jeff Bezos ($158.3 billion)
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, currently has a net worth of 158.3 billion dollars, which places him as the third richest person on the face of the planet. His position has not changed despite the fact that he divorced his wife MacKenzie in 2019 and gave her a quarter of his ownership in Amazon after the divorce was finalized.
Bezos started the massive online retailer Amazon in the garage of his home in Seattle in 1994. Due to the widespread coronavirus pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of people shopping online, which has benefited the e-commerce behemoth.
Also Read: Jeff Bezos Net Worth 2022: How Much Does Jeff Bezos Make in a Day?
4. Gautam Adani and Family ($140 billion)
The entrepreneurial spirit that made Gautam Adani the richest man in India was passed down to him through his father, who was also successful in the textile industry. Although he might have taken over the family business, Adani was uninterested and instead pursued his own dreams of being extremely wealthy.
Adani left his family and quickly became a multimillionaire after entering the diamond industry. Adani Enterprises, a conglomerate with holdings in energy, transportation, mining, infrastructure, logistics, cement, and fast-moving consumer products, was established after he amassed this fortune.
Adani’s stock market success and recent investments in green energy have added more than $40 billion to his net worth over the past year, propelling him toward the top of the wealthy list.
5. Bill Gates ($120 billion)
Young Bill Gates was already an innovator in the field of computer software when he came up with his first program at the age of 13. The fact that he would later help start Microsoft, the largest computer software firm in the world, was unknown at the time. The Microsoft Corporation was established by Bill Gates in 1975, but he resigned as CEO in the year 2000.
Through the years, he remained actively involved with the company as Microsoft extended its development into the computing, software, and gaming industries by acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal estimated to be worth $68.7 billion. Gates stepped down from his position at Microsoft to devote his time to the charitable work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Also Read: Top 10 Richest Children in the World and Their Net Worth
6. Larry Page ($104 billion)
Google was co-founded in 1998 by Larry Page, and he served as CEO until 2001. From 2011 to 2015, he served as CEO again, and he is still actively involved as a board member and major shareholder. YouTube, Google Play, Android, Fitbit, Looker, and Nest are now subsidiaries of Alphabet, a tech holding firm that also includes Google.
While Google’s initial product was a search engine, the company has since reimagined a number of other technologies, including GPS mapping and language translation. To his good fortune, this eventually resulted in the development of one of the largest advertising platforms in the world.
7. Warren Buffett ($102 billion)
Warren Buffett, known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” is widely considered to be the most successful investor of all time. His investment portfolio, overseen by Berkshire Hathaway, includes sizable holdings of Apple stock and shares of a number of different banks. Buffett has long touted the power of compound interest, which he credits with helping him amass his fortune.
While his investments continue to pay off, Buffett has committed to contribute the vast majority of his fortune to humanitarian organizations in his senior years. To date, he has given away $45.5 billion.
8. Sergey Brin ($99 billion)
Google was created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. As a result, it should come as no surprise that he is also among the world’s wealthiest individuals. Brin and Page met at Stanford University and went on to start Google together both are still actively involved in the company as board members with equal stakes.
A more recent development in Brin’s wealth management strategy is the establishment of Bayshore Capital Management in Singapore.
9. Steve Ballmer ($97 billion)
In 1980, after being persuaded by Bill Gates to leave Stanford University’s MBA program, Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft. He joined Microsoft as its 30th employee. Eventually, in the year 2000, Ballmer succeeded Gates as Microsoft’s chief executive officer.
To put it another way, Ballmer is the software giant’s greatest individual stakeholder, with an estimated 4% stake in the company. Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team for $2 billion in 2014, not long after he resigned as CEO of Microsoft.
10. Larry Ellison ($96 billion)
Larry Ellison, like many others on this list, has benefited greatly from the development of modern technology. Dropping out of college in 1977, he went on to develop Oracle, which he expanded from a small startup into a major player in the software and database industries. Oracle is currently worth $187.7 billion on the market, and Ellison still owns over 40% of the company.
Ellison amassed his wealth independently, but a large portion of it came from investments he made in Tesla prior to the company’s spectacular growth, which yielded a net gain of more than 1,000%. Though he had joined Tesla’s board of directors earlier in 2018, Ellison stated in June that he would be leaving. About 1.5% of Tesla’s outstanding shares are still in his possession.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.